2020-01-28 - Memory Dream: Crooked Little House

It's one of those rare, truly hot summer days in Gray Harbor. All day long, the sky has been a flawless, cloudless blue, and the heat has risen watery illusions on the blacktop. On Elm, a couple of older kids broke open a fire hydrant, and so a good portion of the town's kids have gravitated in that direction - even ones that wouldn't normally be seen in this area. Some are going to get a hiding when their parents find out where they've been, but being able to play in a constant stream of cold water that turns the nearby road into a muddy lake has been worth it, for most of them. After a few hours of hard play, a lot of the kids have drifted off.

The broken fire hydrant is just outside an abandoned house. This isn't unusual, in and of itself, although kids who pay attention to ghost stories and rumors would know that THIS house, with its leaning, decaying foundation and its windows like sightless, dead eyes, has some of the sinister reputation that such places often acquire. Of course, that might just be because some of the local hoodlums like to hang out there, and right now, three of them have surrounded a young Thewlis on the lawn of the house, and are grinning as they play 'keep away' with him. Of course, he's probably not having much fun, given that a lot of his stuff has been strewn under the grass, and the kids are tossing a book on monster movies back and forth - and the ones who don't currently have the book are shoving him whenever he turns around to try and get it back. "C'mon, dickweed! Do you want it back or not? You'd better try harder than this!"

It's a good, wholesome, All-American summer, really.

Being only 13 years old, Esme hasn't quite reached that turning point in her life where she's decided to live her life on the straight and narrow. She's still working on grooming that rebellious streak. It doesn't help that she's often left to her own devices with her father being an EMT and her being a nurse at Addington Memorial. Their hours were odd - alternating day and night shifts which meant Esme had learned she could get away with quite a bit! Especially in the summertime.

Which is why the Wilkinson child is on Elm Street right now. It's "forbidden territory" for the newly minted teenager and therefore AWESOME. The broken hydrant is even better - though it wasn't her main goal. The abandoned house was. Esme fancied herself something of a ghost hunter - something adult Esme has long forgotten about - and it was the perfect opportunity and cover story to check it out.

As she walks up to the yard, her eyes narrow. That little twinge of anger and the need for JUSTICE when she sees the kids picking on another one. If her parents did one thing right (they did a lot of things right but that's besides the point) it was teaching her to stand up for herself and for other people. And she couldn't very well go on with her ghost hunting with this happening. And she does what comes naturally. Make herself part of the trouble.

"HEY!" She shouts as she stomps up to the group. "Why don't you pick on someone you're own size, jerks!" Shoving the back of the shoulder of one of the bullies.

Beth is one of the kids who will probably get a hiding when she goes home because everyone knows the Lawsons and everyone knows they keep a tight reign on their three kids. Which means they like to slip those reigns as much as possible. She has splashed around in the fire hydrant to her heart's content and now she is sitting in the dry grass nearby busy with feeding her Tomagotchi which has only died three times this summer. She is wearing bib overhalls over a bright blue t-shirt and her hair, which at this point is still naturally red as opposed to dyed black, is held up in a high ponytail with two scrunches. In short Beth is stylin'.

'Dickweed' draws her attention. She puts her Tomagotchi in the pocket of her bibs and turns to see Thewlis being bullied. She is smaller than he is even and isn't exactly in the mood for being beat up alongside him. But she also can't just leave him to fend for himself. She is getting up from the grass when Esme comes over. That's when she runs over.

"You're all gonna be in trouble!" She shouts frantically as she makes up a lie to frighten away the bullies. "The maintenance workers are coming to look at the hydrant and they're gonna think you did it cause everyone knows you're a bunch of delinquents!" What are delinquents? She honestly has no idea beyond her parents call those kids that.

Hands in the meat of his shoulders, pushing him forward, then another pair in his side, his arms are flailing every time he tries to reach and the wind is kicked out of him every time his is shoved. He's still small, stringy, gawky and lanky. The bruises under his shirt are being increased in width by the kids shoving him.

Don't cry. Don't cry. That gets more hitting. That's the rules. If you cry at home you get hit, so if you cry out in public it's the same? A grunt and whimper escape the young man as his mouth seats into the frown carving lines that will become mournful permanent features over the next twenty years.

Then there are voices, an older girl shoving one of the bullies as the first tear escapes down his cheek. "Please! My book! Please! It's mine!" bought with money his father snuck him. That set off mom. She yelled until dad went out somewhere... Then she focused on him. It was memory of fear, but also it was his. He bought it. No one else. The monsters in the movies could be defeated. Real monsters could be maybe? It was a beacon of this train of thought... He just had to get it back so he leaps when Esme comes in, hoping the distraction is enough.

The bigger kids really didn't expect anyone to want to intervene, and the one Esme shoves spins and punches back by instinct - but she's smart enough to duck out the way. "What the hell, kid? Keep fucking walking, unless you want a piece of this," he snarls, looking down at her from his lofty three years older position. It DOES give Thewlis a distraction, and he does his best to take advantage of it, and the kid with the book cries out and stumbles backwards, almost losing his grip on the thing. "Hey! Knock it off!" he shouts, as if somehow Thewlis is out of line. He yanks the book out of Thewlis' reaching grip.

The three size up their opposition, and bring out nasty little grins. "You wanna get the shit kicked out of you, we can do that." One of them pops his knuckles in what he probably thinks is a very dramatic motion. It's sort of ruined by his wince.

And then Beth comes up, shouting some nonsense about adults caring what happens. One of the kids snorts, "Yeah right. Who gives a fuck? They wanna start shit, we'll throw down with them." The other two give him a sudden, uneasy look.

"Nah, wait, man. I don't want any cop trouble."

"It's been all day," the third points out. "They gotta be sending a car eventually." Besides, now it's three against three, and even with those three being young little shrimps, those aren't odds the bullies particularly like, especially since some other heads are starting to turn at Beth's shouts. The bully that Esme shoved makes a sound of disgust. "Ain't worth the trouble, especially for these lame-ass kids. C'mon, guys." The second spits at Thewlis' feet but seems inclined to slink along. The third, the one holding Thewlis' precious book? He gives a nasty little laugh. "Sure. Why not. You want your book, kid?" He dangles it at the younger boy for just a second, then turns and tosses it through the air.

It sails with surprising aerodynamics towards the house, and flies inside a second story window, the glass there long since broken out by kids very much like these three bullies. "There you go! Go get it. Try not to get eaten by the ghooooooosts." Laughing to each other like they're brilliant wits, the three teens abandon the kids and start wandering down the street, the conversation switching quickly to whose cousin will buy them beer.

A touch of fire in Esme's eyes as she dodges out of the way of the bully's punch. "You ain't got nothin' I want!" Esme looked like she might lunge for the guy but then Beth is there! She gives an approving nod to the younger girl, instinctively doing a glance to see if Angela is around. Not seeing her - she looks back to the group. "Yeah, you heard her. Get lost!" As the boys start slinking off. Yep, keep putting your foot in your mouth Esme. See how far it will take you!

She made an exasperated sound as Thew's book went sailing into the house. Damn it. There went her plans for a peaceful ghost hunt! ...Could ghost hunts be peaceful? Esme wasn't sure. The older girl walked over to where Thew was now. "Are you okay?" She asked him. Even if the answer might be obvious.

"Want help getting your book?" Esme looked over to Beth then. "Are you okay? Where's your sister and Ricky?" Esme was clearly going into some kind of babysitter mode.

"Are you sure about that?" Beth asks the bullies with very wide eyes. "Cause they were awful mad. Said if they caught the kids who did this they'd take them home to their parents in a cop car." But luckily the bullies are going. Unluckily they toss Thewlis's book into the creepy old haunted house. Beth makes a little grimace in sympathy. As they leave she starts in his direction.

Glancing over her shoulder to make sure she won't be overheard she says reassuringly, "The cops aren't coming." She looks down at Thewlis for a moment before she says, "My dad says you have to pop them. In the nose." Esme's question causes her shoulders to raise nearly level with her ears. "I dunno." She then glances towards the house before back to Thewlis, "Are you sure you want to go get it? It is in that old creepy house."

The book flying draws a sound like someone just reached into Thew's chest and broke his heart. Mouth open, brow creasing. He looks older. Not like an older kid. But the cruelty and sadness are aging him, rapidly. He slumps, hands in his pockets and a look of resignation creeps over his face. But Esme offers to help, and the very idea of punching someone seems utterly alien - to the degree that he stares at his hands like they were new discoveries.

"Yu-yes." a slight quaver in his voice now, "It's mine... I. I got it. I." stammering maybe this is where that started. "I gotta get it back. I. I. I need." swallowing hard and then heading towards the house. "Could be... dangerous. You don't have to. It's mine. I." looking to the girls as if he expects them to round on him like the bullies did. "It's ok. I." he sighs and continues, a little faster now.

The house seems empty. And everyone knows ghosts aren't real. The way that the light seems dimmer around the dilapidated building is just a trick of the light, surely. And that smell? That faint, unpleasant smell? Well, sure, it's formaldehyde, but that's probably just a spill that happened somewhere around here.

How hard could it be for three children to get a book?

"Don't worry. It'll totally be fine. We just go up stairs, get the book, and come right back out." Esme says confidently even as she eyes the house warily. Being so up close to the house now does give her the creeps but she isn't about to admit it to anyone. "Besides. It's daylight. nothing bad ever happens in the daytime." Right? Wrong. But she doesn't really know any better yet.

"We'll help you." Because she's not letting Beth go off on her own again - so she offers the younger girl her hand and then starts following Thew to the house. "It'll be faster with all three of us anyway." If Beth did take her hand she may feel Esmes' grip increase just a little the closer they got. "Ugh...what is that?" Esme's nose wrinkled when the weird smell crossed her olfactory senses.

Beth's face sags a little when Thewlis looks that sad. "You've got to pop them in the nose. My dad says!" She says this a little more empathetically, as if repeating it will instill him with the courage to do it. "It's just where the older kids break windows." The little redhead says in agreement with Esme when she says they'll go get the book. "It's fine. We'll go with you."

When Esme offers her her hand she says a little sulkily, "I'm not a baby." Still she takes her hand all the same because it's a creepy house and it scares her a bit. She sniffs. "It smells like the basement in my house." You know...the funeral home she lives in. The basement. Where her dad and grandpa take the dead bodies. She looks at Thewlis a moment before offering him her other hand.

The young boy winces at the notions of 'nothing ever bad happens in daytime' his head ducks lower "I don't hit people. It's bad to hit people... It's." Thew frowns and sniffs back hard. "Hitting is bad..." he keeps his eyes just ahead of his feet. "Old houses stink... probably... mold. Mildew... Hobo pee." the last said by Thewlis as a matter of fact thing, rather than in humor.

He does take the offered hand, his trembling like a baby bird out of the nest on contact. "Thank you." inexplicable shame in his voice, but he starts towards the house, moving careul in expectation of loose boards or worse, keeping contact unless they try to pull away - in which case he goes it alone.

They make their way, hand in hand, to the dilapidated house. It's not really a terribly intimidating building, all things considered - a two story house with a postage-stamp sized concrete porch, empty windows, and peeling paint that was once a pastel blue, and now is mottled with yellow mold. The door, they find, is unlocked - or rather, the lock has been long-since broken by kids trying to get in. It swings open at a touch, revealing a living room. The carpet was never pretty - some awful brown color - but now it's tracked with mud and littered with beer cans. The off-white walls have moss growing on them in dark green patches, and there's graffiti all over them.

There are also a few old paintings and a mirror (long since broken) still hanging on the walls, although the furniture is gone. When they step inside, they'll see a trashed kitchen to their right, and a hallway to their left. Also, each of them feels something once the door closes behind them. A little lurch in their bellies, like one of the free fall rides at the fair. It's only a second, but they know its real. It is cold here, despite the summer heat, and the light through the windows is dimmed, despite the lack of glass or curtains.

Esme inhales sharply when the door closes and her stomach felt like it dropped. This, of course, means she gets another nice big whiff of the stale, moldy house which causes her the cough some. She looks over her shoulder at the closed door but then steels herself. It's fine. Be brave. For the kids at least. It was probably just the wind. On a windless day. Yeah, totally. She looks over at Beth and Thewlis. "What's your name anyway kid?" She asks Thew - maybe just trying to divert from how unsettling this house was.

She looks around a moment for the staircase and then starts to guide them towards the hallway. "The stairs have to be this way." Because no one puts stairs in a kitchen. Well, except on Full House...and other fancy houses like that maybe.

Beth's grip on Esme and Thewlis's hands tighten when she gets that strange unpleasant sensation in her stomach. She looks behind her longingly at the door, but decides she must press on. After all she doesn't want anyone to think she's a chicken. She lets Esme lead the way towards the hallway her head turning at any sound.

Thewlis knows fear. Lives. Breathes it. Can feel it when his hand is tightened on, "Thewlis. My name is Thewlis."

What's more, of the young man... If they don't know fear, don't live in it... he doesn't think they should have to." looking to Beth now, brow furrowed. "Anything happens... you put me between it and you. Ok?" His voice is still quavering, and the pit of sadness in him rears up as if to batter him for his temerity. But it's his fault. That's what he's been told. It's his fault he lives like he does. He deserves it. That's what she tells him. But she didn't say anything about people who are nice to him...

The three children proceed in the direction that surely must hold the stairs. The observant notice that the doorframe they pass through to get to the hallway is...slightly crooked. Likely because the house itself is clearly of shoddy construction, and is slowly tilting and falling over. The hallway is a plain thing; there's a bedroom to the left, the door broken off its hinges, and a bathroom to the right - the door there is just GONE, and there don't even seem to be any hinges on the frame. But who builds a bathroom without a door on it? At the end of the hallway is a staircase that clearly twists around on its way up to the second story.

As they step onto the carpeted hallway, though, though, they can all feel something odd. The floor has a tilt.

Wait, no. The floor is tilting. That's an active verb, because it's like gravity has just shifted and wants them to 'fall' towards the stairs. Esme and Thewlis - perhaps because one is older and the other is accustomed to everything going horribly - grab instinctively for the doorframe, and although wood splinters and jabs into their palms and fingers, they're able to stop from falling. Unfortunately, in order to do that, Esme had to let go of Beth's hand.

And Beth's instincts? Not quite good enough. She goes tumbling through the air as if she's fallen down a well, until she slams painfully into the base of the stairs at the end of the hall. From up above, on the second floor, just out of sight, Beth hears a quiet, amused chuckle.

"Nice to meet ya Thewlis. My name is Esme." There's a twitch of a smile on her lips when he offers to protect Beth. D'awww. But it quickly fades as that uneasy feels lingers and she refocuses to try and find the stairs. They have to be just at the end of this Hallway. Which...is now tilting?! It takes Esme a second to realize what's happening and she yelps. She lets go of Beth's hand to grab on to the frame with the intention of grabbing on to the girl again once she's got herself secured but she didn't move fast enough. "Beth!" She called out looking...down-ish. "Are you okay?!"

Esme looks to Thewlis with wide eyes, a little fear there too. Though in the back of her mind she is also thinking that she's going to get a hiding of her own for not taking care of the younger kids. But who could account for this?! Was it a ghost???!!! "A...Are you okay?" She also asks Thewlis as she starts looking around again to see if there might be a safe way to let go.

Beth just looks confused when Thewlis tells her this. She may live in a funeral home, but she also lives with parents who care for her and wouldn't hurt her. She is isolated from such threats and she doesn't understand.

She still has that confused look on her face when the hallway begins to tilt. She lets out a shrill scream and grasps for something to catch but can't. She tumbles downwards and slams into the floor with a loud exhale as the wind gets knocked out of her. She can't catch her breath enough to cry when she hears that creepy laugh. She coughs and after a moment or two of getting air back into her lungs she does begin to cry.

Gasping at the shift, and ignoring the jabs in his palms from the door frame, and he attempts to climb down as well, "Coming! Are you hurt? Anything broken?" trying to shimmy his way down through the outcroppings.

She looked confused, why wouldn't she. Stupid. Stupid. Just like they tell you. The berating is clear on Thew's face as he tries to descend - mouth in a savage frown once more. But he'll help. It's a bad house... and they came in here with him to help, to get the book. His fault.

Esme drops the last couple inches to her feet, finding solid footing on the now-floor. She makes sure Thew will be able to get down alright before rushing over to Beth. "It's okay! We're here now. I'm so sorry!" She is going to feel bad for a long time about that. She starts to help Beth back up to her feet, looking up (down?) the staircase. Then she looks back the way they came. Clearly wondering if it might be better for them all to just leave. But the stairs were right here. They just had to get the book and get out! ...And the house had to stop moving.

Beth continues to sob as they climb down to her but by the time Esme reaches her the sobs are turning into little whimpers as she picks herself up. She looks a little banged up. Her elbows got all scraped up in the fall. But, for the most part, she's okay. She sniffs back tears as she says thickly to Esme. "There's someone upstairs." She looks like she may begin crying outright again as she whispers to the older girl, "They laughed at me."

Sliding from one point of masonry outcropping, hopping to the next and eventually getting down to Beth, her sobbing breaking his heart - so soon after he offered to protect her. He looks up at the stairwell when it speaks.

"It's... muh-mine. I wan-want it back, please?" Still polite, polite in the face of evil. The little boy's eyes scan for signs of something upstairs, anything, face screwing up before he addresses the others.

"I can go if you don't want to..." that book though. It means the world. It's becoming his world. How to defeat monsters, by understanding them

Esme's learning today that she really, really hates bullies. Though, there's still a heavy sense of unease because this wasn't just some older kid...or maybe it was? But it sounded...wrong. She hugs Beth close for a second or two before loosening her hold on the other girl and peering up the staircase towards the source of the voice, trying to spot it for herself. "You give it back! It isn't yours!" She protested, though even for the girl so quick to try and play tough against the older boys just a short while ago - there was a hint of uncertainty. "Just. Let us have it and. And we're go and we won't tell anyone!"

Beth looks vaguely horrified at whoever is upstair's response to her statement. She clings to Esme tightly and lets out a little cry. Still, when Thewlis suggests he goes back up there by himself she shakes her head fiercely. "Stop it!" She shouts along with Esme. "You stop it now before I go get someone!" After all, if it worked for the bullies outside it should work for this one, right?

Keeping his nerve, still, somehow Thewlis looks up at the... shadow thing, looks to the girls, and then back up. They're yelling, they'll make it mad. Then they'll get hurt. His fault. Again. Getting people hurt. There's another hard sniff and Thewlis actually makes for the stairs - looking like he's ready to burst into tears as he goes

"Ju-hust give it back... I need it." he does, in some ways. It sets the stage, prepares his future. Good things come of a book of monsters, but Thewlis doesn't know that yet. He just knows that book is important to him,

"Someone threw it through my window. Sounds like they were giving it to me, doesn't it?" Another of those broken, dry chuckles. "And who will you tell? Who will you get? But, please--" Thewlis can see the strange bent appendages wiggle with something like amusement or dismissal, and the hallway above them begins to rot. From the rotting patches, long, twisty centipedes, bristling with too long legs, start to squirm and writhe, being born from the walls with a papery, rising whisper. "Be my guest if you'd like to leave," the thing upstairs says, and giggles, its voice going screechy and high pitched.

Then Thewlis speaks up, and there's a long, low, rattling sort of sigh. "You need it, do you? Well, then. I am old, and cold, and my bits ache. Come and get it from me, if you need it so badly? Otherwise, there's always the hallway." One of those centipedes finally breaks free, and falls down the hallway to land right in Beth's hair. It immediately starts to wiggle and squirm and skitter on her scalp.

"The cops! Our parents! There's tons of people to tell!" Esme starts to reach out to grab Thewlis - to stop him from going up those stairs...but then there's centipedes...and Esme? Doesn't do bugs well at all. She screams as they push through the walls, hands flying up as a precautionary measure. "Upstairs! Upstairs!" Away from the centipedes...towards the shadowy thing. Unsure of which was worse. She takes one kids hand in each of her own to start trying to usher them up the stairs. Which...is just a terrible idea in hindsight but, you know, panic. "You could drop the book! And go back to bed! And we'll be on our way!"

"Someone!" Beth shouts, now as angry as she is terrified and hurt. Some of that anger fades from her voice as the hallway begins to rot. She screams when the centipede falls down on her and gets tangled in her hair and one hand is caught up by Esme while the other flails about trying to get the centipede out of her hair. "Stop it! STOP IT!"

Bugs, nastiness, but he needs that book. "I can do it. You two g-guh-get safe..." tears are rolling down as his cheeks as he forces himself to go, step after step, Thewlis's heart in his throat, breath hitching.

"Then you... I. It's my book. Please give me my book!" he halts t the bugs falling and crawling, but not daring to close his eyes. He stands, midway between the girls and whatever it is and he stands with his shoulders hunched and his head down, sobbing, but standing, hands clenched at his sides. "Plllease…"

Beth knocks the centipede out of her hair, it falls with a meaty sort of smack on the wood of the stairs, and skitters past their feet towards the wall, to find a tiny crack and go hiding. Even though it's gone, she can still feel a warmth and phantom legs, dozens and dozens of them, on her head. Climbing the stairs is not the usual thing - gravity is still odd, and so they have to go carefully - each step seems to pull them in a slightly different direction, and a feeling that isn't quite seasickness rolls around in their stomachs. As they climb, there's a heavy scritch-scritch-scritch from above and the slam of a door closing. When they reach the top, it is darkly shadowed.

The second floor seems quite a lot bigger than the first, and they find themselves on a landing with a hallway that has a notable /tilt/ to it, this time sideways. This hallway has no side doors, just a single one at the long end of the hall. It is closed. Spider webs hang heavy and thick, their rope-like webs dangling just above the kids heads. One a couple, fist-sized spiders can be seen, their fat, black bodies vibrating as the breeze stirs their webs. They see the children, and their legs cast shadows as they start to move over the webs, towards the three.

Esme can feel her heart racing, her mind feeling a little woozy from all the confusion about what should have been a simple retrieval. And it was SO DARK. She wants to try and console the younger kids but she is in no position too. Especially when those giant spiders start making their way over. She makes a barely audible squeaking noise. A step back taken - nearly going tumbling down the stairs if she'd taken another step. But Esme stays firmly planted, trying to gather her wits. "Okay..." She swallowed hard. "...On 3...we..." Her voice trails off and then she shakes her head and draws in another breath. "On 3, you two start running for the door. I'll be right behind you. Okay? To make sure nothing gets us." Like, say, the giant spiders. "Good plan?"

Beth continues to swat at her head long after the centipede is out. One of her scrunchies has been lost. She only stops to use her hand to climb up the stairs. She lets out a little groan as the almost nausea overtakes her. She still feels almost sick to her stomach as they step into the hallway where the spiders are. "Uh..." She says to Esme's plan before she nods. It's the only plan they've got.

"Right, go for it... But... Stay together. Easier to hurt us if we're alone." Thew looks between the girls, shivering and readying himself to have to kick spider should the need arise. Enough bullies for today. And he needs that.

The kids move. Thewlis and Beth start heading for that door down the hallway, and Esme trails, keeping her eyes on the spiders as they crawl across the webs towards the kids. The attack comes just as they pass into the hallway, with spiders swinging down on their spinnerets and swarming. Esme's quick with her hands, and she bats several aside where they bounce wetly off the walls - when she touches them she can feel stiff, bristly hairs under her fingers, and their legs scrabbling against her skin, trying to find purchase.

But there are more than she can handle, and a couple run past her along the ceiling, and leap for the other two. Thewlis has a spider bounce off his shoulder, but he's able to squirm out of the way before it can strike. Beth? Beth must have broken a mirror when she got up this morning, because she's not so lucky. The spider drops, and falls...inside her bib overalls, where it can squirm and run and bite underneath that outer layer of clothing. From behind the door, as they reach it, there is laughter like a rusty gate.

Esme yelps and squeaks and gasps just about every single time she bats one of the spiders away. Good thing this wasn't a stealth mission or it would have failed horribly. "Watch you!" She calls as two spiders get past her and she can't stop them from getting to Beth and Thewlis. She sees the one bounce off Thewlis but the other one...she doesn't see anywhere and definitely doesn't like where her mind is going about WHERE the spider is. "We're almost there!" But she is trying to close the gap a bit quicker between herself and the others.

Thew watches the spider drop down into Beth's overalls - flinching when he feels the strike against his back. "I'm sorry! I'm sorry! You shouldn't have come with." Aiming to put himself through the door now, with the laughing, skidding to a halt as soon a he gets in, if he can get in, chest heaving, a sob in his breath. He's being helped, and they're being hurt for it.

He is bad...

Beth runs like spiders are chasing her. Because they are! She isn't really thinking much of what she's doing beyond needing to get to the door. And then...and then the spider drops down the front of her overalls. It's not the first time 90s fashion has helped to hurt a person and it surely won't be the last. She lets out a sob of pain when she is bit, and she tries to slap the top of her stomach to squish the spider that is there biting her. "STOP HURTING ME THIS ISN'T FAIR!" She shouts out in exasperation.

Thewlis hits the door, and it opens with little fuss at all. He skids to a halt inside, with Beth, flailing and slapping, and Esme behind him. They all three pile into the room, although most of the spiders don't follow them in. Beth's new little buddy does, though, running around inside her overalls while she slaps futilely at it - she strikes a couple a glancing blows, but the fabric mutes them and the spider is TOUGH.

The room they stumble into is mostly empty. It was probably a bedroom, once, but now it has nothing. Nothing except the legs and arms. The appendages - and there are far, far more than two of each, stretch unnaturally long across the room, with too many joints twisting them in too many directions. They're clad in shrouds of spidersilk, growing thicker as they approach the central body of the resident of the room. That body is corpulent and heaving, with dozens of arms and dozens of legs, and nothing else but a wizened face, vaguely human, with eyes that glow faintly red. "Step into my parlor, why don't you?" it says, and giggles again.

In a few of its hands, it holds Thewlis' book. But there are more hands around that book, looking like they're ready to grab anyone who comes close. "Here's your book, young man. If you need it, then take it."

Once inside the room, Esme feels blinded. Temporarily helpless to do anything except...stand there. Then her eyes adjust and there are...arms. Legs? Lots of arms. Impossibly big and long arms and there is Thew's book! And red eyes. Scary red eyes like in that one movie she wasn't supposed to watch but sat on the staircase and watched it while her parents did a few weeks ago on a rare night they were both home at the same time.

In a mix of fear and anger Esme shouted, "DROP. THE. BOOK! IT'S. NOT. YOURS!" As she did there was a ripple in the air. Like an energy emitting from her and hurling towards the Spider-Man-Monster. Resulting in a series of tiny cuts forming on the thing- mostly focused on the appendages holding the book.

Beth doesn't see the entirety of the horror before her when they come into the room because she is busy being bitten the shit out of by a spider. She lets out several angry and pained cries as she continues smacking herself to kill the spider. Finally she just sort of shakes it down her pant leg and onto the floor where she attempts to smash it with her Reebok.

When she sees the monster she is frozen in horror for a moment. It is Esme's action that causes her to move. The 5th grader lets out a yell that may be her version of a battle cry and she rushes the leg to pull and jostle and punch it with all of her spider-bitten 10 year old fury. "Let go! Let go! Let go!"

Turning and grabbing the leg off of an end table, lifting it and calling out in his charge. Eyes wide, mouth open as he makes to swing for the head. He doesn't know why, but the book is everything. Without it things won't be the way they were meant to. The way they are, but not the way they are now.

He's frightened, he's almost pissed himself twice. "Give it back! I NEED IT!" bringing the haft of wood down repeatedly, smashing at hands, fingers, the red eyes. No one gave it to him. The first thing he ever got for himself. Maybe that's why he needs it. The first thing done for himself. He keeps swinging, ignoring the sounds of contact.

Bubbly black ichor dribbles from the cuts, and the thing recoils, its wizened face twisting up in pain. "Stop that, you wretched child!" it screeches at Esme. It recoils a little, grabby hands shrinking back, and this is the moment that Beth charges in, flailing and punching at the legs. Black ichor from the wounds Esme opened coat her fists, but it twitches even further back, making an incoherent sound of pain.

And then Thewlis is there, swinging the broken leg around and further battering the creature. It howls in outrage--but the triple assault works. The thing loses its grip on the book, which falls to the floor.

The...perfectly normal floor. The sundrenched, summer-warmed floor, in a stifling hot room that has no spiderwebs or monsters, just shards of broken window glass, graffiti, and the detritus that any abandoned building picks up. They're battering air, now. Even the spider in Beth's clothing is gone...although the bites remain, and are turning red and painful, along with her bruises from falling. But whatever happened? It seems to have passed.

There is only the monster movie book, sitting in a pool of sunlight, looking for all the world as if it was just carelessly tossed through a window by a group of malicious teens.